Heritage Foundation

Background

The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich to “formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.” [1]

The Heritage Foundation has had considerable influence over Republican politicians. It is estimated that two-thirds of the policy recommendations it made in 1981 were adopted by the Reagan Administration [2]. The Heritage Foundation has been described as “the most effective media operation in American politics[8].” [3]

Stance on Climate Change

Ben Lieberman[12], Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment at The Heritage Foundation said the following about climate change:

“What I conclude from a policy standpoint is that global warming is clearly not a crisis and should not be addressed as one … None of the scary stuff about global warming is true, and what is true about global warming, what the science actually tells us about man's role in changing the climate, is far from terrifying.” [4]

Heritage selectively edited the report in a way that manufactured doubt about man-made climate change by editing out 10 pages and 48 paragraphs[47] of text that had provided context in the report. [10]

The Royal Society's accurate view that man-made climate change is a problem is evidenced in the report summary “[This report] shows that there is strong evidence that over the last half century, the earth's warming has been caused largely by human activity.”

Nicolas Loris[48], the author of Heritage's controversial post, is a former associate of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

May 4, 2009

Heritage held a panel titled “Busting the Myth of Green Jobs[49]” that aimed[50] to “explore the lessons of Spain, and examine some of the fundamental flaws in the green jobs-as-an-economic-salve line of argument.” [11]

The Heritage Foundation's senior policy analyst Ben Lieberman joined Robert Murphy, an economist at the Institute for Energy Research (IER), [52]on a panel to discuss the study (PDF[53]) done by economist Gabriel Calzada that suggested green jobs were harmful to the economy.
Calzada's study has been debunked[54] on numerous occasions.

November 5, 2008

In a “WebMemo” published on November fifth by the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Donald Kreutzer claimed that policy initiatives to advance green investment hurt economic growth and employment.

Kreutzer pointed to three studies that contended made false claims that green investment can promote job creation. Robert Pollin, the co-author of one of the studies (“Green Recovery”) responded[55] here. See a PDF version of his response here[56]. [13]

1990s

The Heritage Foundation reportedly encouraged conservatives to work together to “[s]trangle the environmental movement.” [14]

This originally presented in a blueprint for policy in the 1990s and published in its journal “Policy Review.”